Sundance Film Festival

Gus Van Sant, director of Golden Globe winning films Good Will Hunting (screenplay for Matt Damon and Ben Affleck) and To Die For (best actress for Nicole Kidman) and Milk.

Festival goers packed the Sundance TV lounge on Main Street as the HFPA hosted the Women Breaking Barriers panel in association with Sundance Institute and Sundance TV Saturday. HFPA journalist Elisabeth Sereda moderated the discussion and opened the proceedings announcing a $50.

A couple of thousand noisy protesters braved the snow falling in Park City, Utah for the "Respect Rally", this year’s edition of the Women’s march, marking the 1st anniversary of the Trump presidency and last year’s march at Sundance. This year’s theme was registering voters and mobilizing turnout for the November mid-term elections.

As part of the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Golden Globe Awards, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) will continue to host special events, this time at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. The HFPA will host a special “Women Breaking Barriers” panel featuring accomplished women from various fields in the film industry, moderated by HFPA member Elisabeth Sereda.

A new generation of filmmakers and the usual collection of returning pros mark the 2017 edition of the Sundance Film Festival. The line-up for the Premieres, Midnight and Documentary sections of the Park City fest- running this year from January 19 to 29 – picks from a vast roster of 4,068 submissions and offers the usual mix of up-and-coming talent, star turns and intriguing documentaries and shorts.

Can one first date be interesting enough to fill 80 minutes? Yes, when the couple in question happens to be Michelle Robinson and Barack Obama. Their often-mentioned first rendezvous is the subject of Southside With You (the title referring to Chicago’s Southside where they both lived).

Mere days before the political primaries begin, which will eventually lead to selecting his successor, Barack Obama is all the buzz in Park City after the festival screening of Southside with You, screenwriter/director Richard Tanne’s debut film which recounts a very special day in the lives of the people we now refer to as the First Couple. Tanne’s film details the Obamas’ first date – although Michelle (Tika Sumpter) may (and does) have something to say about that characterization in the film! On that summer day in 1989 Chicago Harvard law student Barack Obama (Parker Sawyers) in his late twenties is spending the summer back in Chicago interning at a prestigious law firm where his advisor is fellow Harvard alumna Michelle Robinson.

He co-wrote movies such as The Ice Storm and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, produced Brokeback Mountain, founded and ran Focus Features (2002-2013), where he oversaw the production and distribution of Lost in Translation, Milk, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Kids Are All Right, but this year, at the age of 57, James Schamus arrived at Sundance Film Festival with his directorial debut Indignation, which he adapted from Philip Roth’s novel of the same name. “I never really had any particular envy or urge over the years to direct,” he explained at an HFPA-hosted dinner in Park City.

Only Cannes has more events than Sundance. A serious party hopper could easily start around 3pm every day and not get home until a good 12 hours later.

Indignation. Directed by James Schamus.